4 




/5F 



F 159 
■ F7 F7 
Copy 1 



Union Services 



AT THE 



Old Forty Fort Church 



FORTY FORT, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA. 



ON 



June 15th, 1888 



wilkes-barre, pa. 

Press of the Wilkes-Barre Record 

1888 



V 






Sk-^mm^^mmiR 




[From Pearce's Annals of Luzerne County.! 

THE OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 






Union Services 



AT THE 



Old Forty Fort Church 



FORTY FORT, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA. 



ON 



June 15th, 1888 






wilkes-barre, pa. 

Press of the Wilkes-Barre Record 

1888 



In 
Wis. Hist, Soar 



^ 









w> 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Introductory ..... 5 

Address of Steuben Jenkins ... 7 

Address of Jonathan K. Peck . . . 21 



INTRODUCTORY. 

It is a hundred years since the first Methodist class 
was established in Wyoming Valley, and eighty years since 
the old Union Church at Forty Fort was erected. Inter- 
esting meeting and exercises were held in the quaint old 
edifice on Monday, June 5th, 1888, at 2 P. M., and its 
high-backed unpainted pews were all occupied, as were 
the stairways leading to the gallery. 

The interior of the old edifice merits a description: — 
Against the side opposite the door is a pulpit, curiously 
paneled, the rail of which is about twelve feet above the 
floor. It is approached by a winding stair. Fronting the 
pulpit are two rows of high pews, with doors, each pew 
seating seven or eight persons. Against the four walls are 
square enclosures slightly raised above the pews, with 
benches all around. Each window has twenty-four small 
panes of glass. The gallery runs around three sides and 
is reached by two flights of winding stairs in the corners. 
The gallery is supported by turned wooden pillars about 
ten inches in diameter. The gallery is broad, with a level 
floor, and from its rear part the spectator could just see 
the head of the preacher. The timbers in the frame pro- 
ject through the plastering into the room and some show 
the hewed surface, though most of them are cased. Against 
some of them are the rude brackets upon which candles 
can be set — in fact no more modern method of lighting 
has ever been provided. The building is longer than it is 
wide. There are three windows on the ground floor of 
each end, and four on the sides. Also a smaller square 
one with round top immediately behind the pulpit landing. 
The interior woodwork has never been painted, though the 
walls and ceiling are neatly whitewashed 



Among those present were: — Major Hicks, Hon. John 
B. Smith, Franklin Helme, Rev. M. D. Fuller, John D. 
Hoyt, Dr. F. Corss, Rev. J. G. Eckman, Rev. F. A. Chap- 
man, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Wilcox, Wm. Loveland, 
Judge Wm. S. Wells and wife, Hon. H. B. Payne, Law- 
rence Myers, Rev. W. Keatley, Moses D. Wilson, Rev. 
Miner Swallow, Rev. I. K. Kilbourn, Rev. F. Von Krug, 
Rev. J. Underwood, R. C. Shoemaker, F. C. Johnson, Mrs. 
Sally Henry, Miss Jenkins, Mrs. C. M. Pettebone, Mrs. 
Sarah Denison Reilay and Mrs. S. J. Sharps. 

Hon. L. D. Shoemaker presided. Rev. Henry H. 
Welles offered prayer and the assemblage sang a hymn to 
the tune of "Old Hundred," led by a former choir singer, 
Hon. Steuben Jenkins. Mr. Shoemaker briefly stated the 
object of the meeting. He said the church had been built 
at a time when the settlers were few and poor. Its archi- 
tecture was a thing of the past and but few such churches 
now existed. It was desirable that the old structure be 
preserved just as it is. This would be done, as it and the 
burying ground belong to an incorporated organization. 

The speakers of the day were Hon. Steuben Jenkins, 
who treated of the Presbyterian history of the church, and 
Rev. J. K. Peck, who narrated its Methodist history. 

At this conclusion Chairman Shoemaker called for im- 
promptu remarks from Dr. F. Corss, Rev. H. H. Welles, 
Rev. Miner Swallow, who heard Father Moister preach at 
a revival in this church in 1833; R- ev - William Keatley, 
who gave some recollections after 1857, and Hon. John 
B. Smith. 

The exercises closed with the singing of Coronation 
and the pronouncing of the benediction by Rev. J. G. 
Eckman. The assemblage then dispersed, many remain- 
ing, however, to inspect the old church. 

The foregoing is taken from the Wilkes-Barre Record 
of the following day. 



ADDRESS 

OF 

HON. STEUBEN JENKINS. 

This building, in which we are now assembled, known 
to the present generation as " The Old Forty Fort Church," 
from the best authority we have upon the subject was 
projected, and subscriptions made for its building, in the 
year of 1806; and during the winter of 1806-7 the stone 
for the foundation and the timber for the superstructure 
were brought upon the ground. 

During the summer of 1807 the timber was framed 
and the general building completed, so that the interior 
finish of the pews, pulpit, etc., was completed during the 
winter of 1 807-8, and the whole edifice was ready for occu- 
pancy about the first of June, 1808, or as near as maybe 
eighty years ago. Whether there was any formal dedica- 
tion of it to the worship of Almighty God I have been 
unable to learn, but the supposition and natural inference 
would be that there was such dedication. This was the 
first finished church edifice in which religious services 
were held, not only in Wyoming but throughout all North- 
eastern Pennsylvania. 

The architect and builder was Joseph Hitchcock, a 
New Haven name, father of Piatt Hitchcock, who was 
Treasurer of Luzerne county, and subsequently Treasurer 
of Clinton county, Pa., at Lock Haven. Hitchcock 
was considered a very skillful mechanic. He laid out and 
framed the building by what was known among builders 
as the square rule, which was thought to be, in those days, 
a wonderful feat of skill. Gideon Underwood, a cabinet 
maker and first-class carpenter, made the pulpit. 



8 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

The building committee consisted of Benjamin Dcr- 
rance, Daniel Hoyt, Elijah Shoemaker, Lazarus Denison 
and Luke Swetland. The lime used in its walls was hauled 
with teams from Lime Ridge. 

The quaint style of construction and arrangement of 
pulpit, pews and gallery is peculiarly noticeable, and sug- 
gests the inquiry as to whence came this style of archi- 
tecture. That the style is antique and that but few speci- 
mens of it now remain there is no doubt. There is a 
church of this style and finish in Wickford, at the head of 
Narragansett Bay, R. L, another in Newport, R. I., and 
one in Richmond, Va., and beyond these I know of no 
other. Time, the elements and a change in style have 
made sad havoc with these ancient structures, and though 
the time may have been when there were many such, it is 
certain but few remain to greet our day. Yet however 
strange and unique this style of building may now appear, 
it was not so one hundred and fifty to two hundred years 
ago. Miss Caulkins in her history of New London gives 
this account of one. She says : "The Second Congrega- 
tional Church of New London was raised nth July, 1723. 
In accordance with the style of architecture then preva- 
lent, this meeting house had greater breadth than length ; 
the pulpit being placed in one of the sides of greatest 
extent. It had two tiers of free benches or seats in the 
middle, a row of pews around the walls, three doors, and 
gallery stairs in two corners. The pews were built at the 
charge of the owners and were not completed till 1727. 
Those of greatest honor were each side of the pulpit, and 
on each side of the door opposite the pulpit. These four 
pews were occupied by Mrs. Raymond and her son 
Joshua, Captain Robert Denison, Captain John Mason 
and Madam Livingston, Mr. Joseph Otis and Major 
John Merrit. Only fourteen pews were built; the other 
seats were free." 

This description answers admirably for this old build- 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 9 

ing. I remember when it had three doors, one in each 
end, besides the one on the south front now remaining. 

Rev. James Hillhouse was pastor of the congregation 
at the time of building this church, or meeting-house, as 
known in those days. He died 15th December, 1740. 
Rev. Samuel Dorrance, ancestor of Rev. Dr. John Dor- 
rance, married the widow for his second wife ; his first 
wife, mother of his children, being Elizabeth Smith. I am 
a lineal descendant of Sarah Denison, aunt of Robert, and 
also of Joseph Otis, whose youngest daughter was my great- 
grandmother. 

In 1707 the Episcopalians, or Church of England, erec- 
ted a house of worship in North Kingston, R. I., in which 
the celebrated Doctor McSparran, an Irishman, born of 
Scotch parents in County Derry, Ireland, preached from 
1 72 1 -2, till his death in 1757. He arrived in America 
in 1 718. The church in which he officiated for so 
many years was in 1 800 removed from the spot on which 
it was erected, and carried to Wickford, a distance of about 
three miles, where it was fitted up for use. 

In August, 1887, when on a tour with my wife to Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island, we remained over the Sabbath 
at Wickford and heard religious services in that old house, 
a frame one still standing and in good condition, on a 
green knoll, to the north of and a little more than a square 
from the main street of the village. The day was a 
delightful one, and we very greatly enjoyed our visit to 
that ancient structure. 

This church here, whose history is hallowed fty many 
sacred associations, is an exact counterpart in pulpit, pews, 
gallery and even the columns supporting the gallery, of 
that old church, battered by the storms of nearly two cen- 
turies and still standing, the oldest Episcopal Church in 
New England, and possibly of any other denomination. 
Trinity Church at Newport, erected in 1726, is said to be 
of like internal structure and style with the one at Wick- 
ford and this one, but differing externally in that Trinity 



10 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

has a tower, a steeple and a clock, which neither of the 
others has. It is proper for me to say here that the hand 
of progress, pride or vandalism, has changed the fashion 
of the pulpit in the church at Wickford to a common plain 
desk, while the pulpit in Trinity has been taken out of its 
place and a new fashioned crow's nest erected in or near 
the centre of the church as a substitute. 

With these facts before us we have another example 
and clear evidence of the closeness of the relation between 
the old town of Kingston, R. I., and the town of Kingston 
in Wyoming, the latter not only receiving its pioneer set- 
tlers, but its name and style of architecture from the 
former. 

REV. ARD HOYT. 

Among the first, if not the first, to preach in this house 
was Rev. Ard Hoyt, a Congregational minister from Dan- 
bury, Conn., a brother of Daniel Hoyt, the grandfather of 
our highly esteemed ex-Governor Henry M. Hoyt. Mr. 
Hoyt was a large, well built man, over six feet tall, of a 
vigorous and earnest manner, with forceful delivery, and he 
impressed his hearers with the idea that he meant what he 
said, and it was their duty to accept him as their teacher 
and be obedient to the lesson taught. He was a Puritan 
of the straitest sect, a strict church disciplinarian, and 
no trifler in doctrine or in deed. Some of his teachings 
were not relished by certain of his congregation, and they 
made plain to tell him so, but he was always prepared, like 
the famous preacher of Hudibras, 

"To prove his doctrines Orthodox, 
By Apostolic blows and knocks. " 

Dr. Dorrance said of him : 

" Few men exhibited a life so uniformly consistent with 
their profession. He literally set his face, like flint, against 
sin in any form. With him there was no compromise of 
duty. He was a fearless preacher of the doctrines of 
grace. On the foundation laid by him others have builded 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. I I 

with satisfaction and confidence, and the structure survives 
with honor to all connected with its founding." 

He was installed pastor of the church of Wilkes-Barre 
and Kingston in August, 1806, and continued in charge 
until his resignation. He preached his farewell sermon on 
the first Monday of June, 181 7, to go as a Missionary to 
the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee. He died on the 1 8th 
of February, 1828, in the field of his labors. 

Rev. Ard Hoyt was succeeded for four or five years 
by the missionary labors of Rev. Eleazer S. Barrows, Rev. 
Hutchins Taylor and Rev. D. Moulton, who received aid 
from Revs. Kingsbury, York, Wood and King. Rev. 
Hutchins Taylor, and the congregations under his charge, 
made a preliminary organization of a separate Congrega- 
tional Church in Kingston in 18 18, of which he was the 
settled pastor for about three years. This organization 
was requested by the church of Wilkes-Barre and Kings- 
ton, and approved by a council of ministers of that 
denomination, to wit: Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury, Modera- 
tor ; Rev. Oliver Hill, Scribe, with Rev. Manasseh Miner 
York, held at the house of Deacon Daniel Hoyt, in Kings- 
ton, on the 2d of March, 18 19. Of the particulars of the 
talents, characters and labors of these men I have not been 
able to gather sufficient data to warrant me in attempting 
a sketch of any of them. The field of their labors was 
principally Bradford county. 

REV. CYRUS GILDERSLEEVE. 

These were succeeded by Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve, on 
the 15th of June, 1821, who was assisted in the Kingston 
Church in 1826-9, by Rev. James Wood, a licentiate of 
the Princeton Theological Seminary, subsequently a pro- 
fessor in the seminary at New Albany as Rev. Dr. Wood. 
Mr. Gildersleeve continued in his work at Wilkes-Barre 
until dismissed from that charge at a meeting at Pike, in 
Bradford county, on the 18th of April, 1829, when he re- 
signed and was succeeded by Rev. Nicholas Murray. 



12 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

During his pastorate, Mr. Gildersleeve did considerable 
missionary work, occasionally preaching in Pittston, Provi- 
dence, Plymouth, Hanover, Newport, and other localities 
outside of his charge. He was born near Morristown, N. 
J., educated at Rutgers College, and in his early, active 
life went to Georgia, where he was settled over a church 
in Liberty county, and where he married a woman of 
property, which, after many years, they sold out, when 
they moved to Wilkes-Barre. From there he moved to 
Bloomfield, N. J., and died at Elizabethtown about 1841, 
at a ripe old age. 

When preaching here he was well advanced in years, 
but yet of a handsome person and courtly manners, show- 
ing a man of education and refinement. He was rather 
sound and learned than eloquent. He had a slight impedi- 
ment in his speech, marked by a peculiar lateral movement 
of the jaw. He was esteemed and highly respected by 
all with whom he came in contact. Dr. Dorrance says : 
" He labored incessantly, was an able sermonizer, an in- 
telligent divine, successful in his work, adding 95 on pro- 
fession to the church." 

REV. NICHOLAS MURRAY. 

Rev. Nicholas Murray was ordained to the work of the 
Gospel Ministry, as pastor of the church of Wilkes-Barre 
and Kingston, by the Presbytery of Susquehanna, at the 
old church, on the Square in Wilkes-Barre, on the 4th of 
November, 1829. Of this proceeding Mr. Murray says: 
"The exercises of my ordination were solemn and inter- 
esting. Dr. Janeway preached a good didactic sermon, 
which he will publish. The charge of Rev. Mr. Gray, of 
Easton, to the pastor and people, also to be published, was 
certainly very fine. The house was full and we hope an 
impression was made favorable to the cause of Christ in 
the valley." 

Previous to the call of Dr. Murray the churches at 
Wilkes-Barre and Kingston were Congregational, but the 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 1 3 

Doctor on receiving the call as their pastor, made the fol- 
lowing, among other, conditions before accepting the 
same : " First, that the church of Wilkes-Barre become, 
previous to my ordination, Presbyterian." This was ac- 
cordingly done. 

An association of Congregational churches was formed 
in Colesville, Windsor township, N. Y., 16th of September, 
1817, from a change of the Luzerne Association to the 
Susquehanna Presbytery. There was no Presbyterian in 
that body until 3d of March, 1821, when Rev. Manasseh 
Miner York and Rev. Simeon R. Jones organized with the 
Presbyterian form in full in Wells township, Bradford 
county, Pa. The new Presbytery met in Wells, 19th of 
June, 1 82 1, and was received into the Synod of New York 
and New Jersey in October, 1821. 

As soon as Dr. Murray found his situation in Wilkes- 
Barre satisfactory and likely to prove somewhat perma- 
nent, he went, in the month of January, 1830, to Philadel- 
phia to bring a bride to his new home. His journey was 
not only a cold and tedious one, but, to add to his suffer- 
ings, the coach in which he was riding upset near Bethle- 
hem and several of the passengers were injured. Dr. 
Murray escaped with a cut on one of his fingers, which 
required a surgical dressing, and the circular scar made by 
the wound he always carried and humorously called his 
wedding ring. In consequence of this unlooked for acci- 
dent, he did not get to the home of the bride in time to 
have the wedding go off according to the arrangement. 
There was consternation at the home of the bride, but she 
had faith in both his love and his honor, and yielded not 
to despair. The next day brought on the groom bruised 
and sore, but alive and true to his purpose. The marriage 
was defered for a week when it was consummated and he 
carried his bride to their new home. 

The lady he married was a daughter of Morgan John 
Rhees, of Glamorganshire, Wales, a Baptist preacher, who 
came to this country as the pioneer and protector of a 



14 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

Welsh colony which was established in Cambria county in 
this state, where he planned a county and located the 
capital, which he called Beulah, a name no longer found 
in that locality, except as it is sometimes spoken of as the 
"lost town." He subsequently removed to Somerset 
county, where he died 7th of December, 1804, AL. 44. 

The more than ordinary character and career of Rev. 
Nicholas Murray, will, I am sure, be sufficient excuse, if 
one were necessary, for my following his history in con- 
nection with the Presbyterian Church in this vicinity, 
through his continuance here, and in a measure through- 
out his whole career. 

The work of Mr. Murray in this region was peculiar in 
its character and results. He found his charge small, rent 
and torn by dissensions, prayerless and powerless. He 
left it large, well organized and harmonious, prayerful and 
of great power in the upbuilding of the work of the Lord. 
The results of his labors reached beyond the flock he had 
in charge. He gave a dignity, a force of character and 
affection to the work that attracted sinners as well as saints. 
He was beloved and respected not only by his own church 
and congregation, but by those of other denominations, 
and his departure from this field of labor was matter of 
universal regret. 

Rev. Dr. Samuel Irenseus Prime, of New York, said 
of his work here: "Two congregations on opposite sides 
of the river were now on his hands. A small church was 
at Kingston, with no house of worship except an old 
building at Forty Fort where he preached every Sabbath 
morning. Here he lectured every week spending the 
afternoon of the same day of the lecture in visiting his 
people from house to house. Up among the mountains, 
in the most retired and difficult passes, he sought his 
sheep, gathered them into his fold and under the influ- 
ence of his ministry. On foot, on horseback, in the 
midst of storms, and cold, he pursued these labors with a 
spirit and : diligence that could not fail of success. Even 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. I 5 

beyond the mountains, in Northmoreland, he pressed his 
way to carry the gospel as a volunteer missionary beyond 
the bounds of his own parish." 

Rev. Dr. Janeway, of Philadelphia, said of him : " His 
settlement at Wilkes-Barre was an era in the history of 
that church and region. A new influence went forth, and 
Wyoming felt his hand in the new and vigorous measures 
for the spread of the gospel truth. " 

Another, Mrs. Jones, said: "His influence was not 
confined to his church, nor to the town. The country for 
miles around felt that a man of God, valiant for the truth 
and fearless for right, had come among them. " 

Nicholas Murray was born in Ballynaskea, County of 
Westmeath, Ireland, 25th of December, 1802, and was the 
son of Nicholas and Judith Mangan Murray, both of whom 
were Roman Catholics. He attended a Catholic school at 
home for three years, in which he made marked advance- 
ment in his studies. At the age of fifteen he embarked 
for America, where, soon after his arrival, he found em- 
ployment in the printing house of the Harpers in Pearl 
street. He was first led to doubt the pretensions of the 
Catholic church by the character of the pious mother of 
the Harper Brothers, and from disbelief of Catholicism, he 
passed to infidelity. He subsequently became a Metho- 
dist and finally a Presbyterian, in the bosom of which 
church he died. 

In 1820 he went to Dr. Mason's Seminary and from 
there to Amherst Academy, and in the autumn of 1822, 
entered freshman in Williams College, Massachusetts. He 
graduated in 1826 and at once entered Princeton Theologi- 
cal Seminary where he graduated. He was honored by 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Williams College in 
1843. A more than ordinary interest attached to his 
career from the fact that he was a convert from the Catho- 
lic church, and his controversial correspondence with 
Right Rev. John Hughes, of New York, over the nom de 



1 6 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

plume of Kirwan, increased that interest and made his 
name and talent known throughout all Christendom. 

Hon. Caleb E. Wright, of the M. E. Church, says of 
him : " Nicholas Murray was a resplendent star. He pro- 
duced a great impression. He had the courage of a lion, 
a trenchant tongue, and a voice that inspired awe. He 
would have been a grand man at the head of an army. 
To the emotion of fear he was a stranger. When denun- 
ciation was required he could strike giant blows. 

" I remember him in his early manhood as a man of 
short stature, black hair, keen blue eyes, ruddy complex- 
ion, a square, well formed face, indicating firmness, intellect 
and bravery. " 

In conclusion I may truly say that he was a remarkable 
man, and made a remarkable impress on all with whom he 
came in contact. He died at his home in Elizabethtown, 
N. J., on the 4th of February, 1861, with his friends and 
family around him. 

A few words as to how Dr. Murray came to be called 
to the church at Elizabethtown, will close this sketch. 

In the month of April, 1833, Rev. Dr. John McDowell 
was dismissed from the pastoral charge of the First Pres- 
byterian church in Elizabethtown, N. J., to the Central 
Presbyterian church at Philadelphia. He left Elizabeth- 
town on the 13th of May, 1833, and on the two following 
Sabbaths, Dr. Murray preached in his late pulpit. The 
congregation met on the 3d of June, and with entire 
unanimity made a call for him of $1,000 per year, and 
the use of the manse and glebe, which he promptly accep- 
ted, and on the 23d of July, 1833, he was installed in his 
new charge. He resigned his pastoral charge at Wilkes- 
Barre and Kingston on the 26th of June, 1833, and was 
succeeded therein by Rev. John Dorrance, on the 22d of 

August, 1833. 

REV. JOHN DORRANCE. 

Mr. Dorrance was a man of much more than ordinary 
talent and character, all of which he devoted unstintedly 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. I J 

to the service of his Master, and to the upbuilding of his 
kingdom on earth. His manner was mild and attractive, 
inspiring confidence in his every word and work. In the 
councils of the Church his moderation prevailed over the 
most violent and vehement appeals of his brethren. . In 
times of excitement, when words and feelings ran high, his 
cool manner and good common sense suggestions were 
always accepted as safer, and more to be relied upon, than 
extreme measures. He had the unlimited confidence of 
all his associates and his word was law among them. They 
always found his counsel to lead in the prudent and safe 
path. He was never tempted to take an undue advantage 
that he might secure a temporary success. 

The result was that he became a tower of strength in 
his church throughout all the lines of its organization. 
Few men have performed their duty in their chosen walk 
with more honor or with better success. While a devoted 
partisan of the church of his choice he was never offen- 
sively so. He was grave without austerity, firm without 
obstinacy, mild without weakness, and in his intercourse 
with the world blameless. 

John Dorrance, eldest son of Benjamin and Nancy 
Buckingham Dorrance, was born in Kingston township, 
(now Borough of Dorranceton,) at the family homestead, 
Luzerne county, Pa., on the 28th of February, 1800. 
After a course of preparatory study in Kingston and 
Wilkes-Barre, he entered the College of New Jersey, at 
Princeton, in 18 19, and graduated in that institute in 1823. 
After a short vacation he entered Princeton Theological 
Seminary, and graduated therefrom in June, 1826. He 
soon after took out a commission as a Missionary, and 
started in the early autumn of 1826, on horse-back, with 
Rev. Zebulon Butler as fellow traveler and co-worker in 
the same cause, for his contemplated field of labor in 
Louisiana. He was ordained and installed Pastor of a 
Presbyterian Church at Baton Rouge, in November, 1827, 
and on the 6th of the following month was married to Miss 



1 8 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

Penelope, daughter of Samuel Mercer, a native of Lan- 
caster county, Pa., of Quaker ancestry, near Baton Rouge. 
From this field of labor he returned to Wyoming in the 
early summer of 1830, and passed a year at his father's 
house, in the meantime supplying vacant pulpits and doing 
Missionary work along the Upper Susquehanna and 
Lackawanna in places remote from organized supply. In 
1 83 1 he was called to be pastor of the Church at Wysox, 
Bradford county, where he remained until called as pastor 
of the Church at Wilkes-Barre in 1833 to succeed Rev. Dr. 
Murray. He continued in charge of this church until his 
death, at his home in Wilkes-Barre, in the midst of his 
labors, on the 18th of April, 1861, less than three months 
after the death of his illustrious predecessor. 

The College of New Jersey, his Alma Mater, in 1859 
had conferred upon him without solicitation on his part 
the well deserved honor of the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

As has been stated, previous to Dr. Dorrance's location 
at Wilkes-Barre, he had been laboring as a Missionary 
along the Upper Susquehanna and the Lackawanna. He 
was assisted in these labors by Revs. Thomas Janeway, 
William Wood and others. Zebulon Butler had spent 
some time laboring in that field previous to his going 
South. 

After the location of Dr. Dorrance at Wilkes-Barre, 
and previous to 1841, he had as Missionaries under his 
charge in Wyoming Valley and its vicinity, Revs. Thomas 
Owen, John Turbot, Orrin Brown, John Rhodes and Isaac 
Todd. These all made the Upper Susquehanna, Lacka- 
wanna, Northmoreland, Falls, (now Newton,) the field of 
their labors, but special attention was given to the Lacka- 
wanna field. 

In 1832-3-4 Rev. Alexander Heberton labored in the 
Kingston church, making his home in Wyoming, under 
whom a church edifice was erected at Wyoming on the 
east corner of the Wyoming Cemetery grounds. He was 
succeeded by Rev. Charles Chapin Corss, who continued 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 1 9 

for about two years, and gave way to Rev. E. Hazard 
Snowden in the summer ot 1837. These all preached at 
the "Old Forty Fort Church." Soon after the arrival of 
Mr. Snowden the old church was abandoned by the con- 
gregation of Kingston, who held their meetings in the old 
Academy, as it had previously been abandoned by that of 
Wyoming, who held their services in their new church 
edifice. 

The congregation at Kingston built a new church edi- 
fice at the upper end of the village, on the Peirce Butler 
farm, in 1 841-2, which was dedicated on the 13th of 
November, 1842, the sermon being preached by Dr. 
Nicholas Murray, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Elizabethtown, N. J., from the text: "And he called 
the name of that place Bethel." — Gen. xxviii, 19. After 
the dedication of this church, the Presbyterians entirely 
abandoned the use of this old church except for occa- 
sional funeral services. 

The deacons and elders of the Kingston church were 
Daniel Ffoyt, Elijah Loveland, William Barker, Ziba Hoyt, 
and of the Wyoming church, Henry Hice and Charles 
Fuller. 

REV. CHARLES CHAPIN CORSS. 

Rev. Charles Chapin Corss was born in Greenfield, 
Massachusetts, 22d of May, 1803, graduated at Amherst 
College in 1830, and at Princeton Theological Seminary 
in 1834, and came to the valley in December of that year. 
Although he never preached statedly in this building, yet 
he rendered occasional services here. On the 2d of April, 
1835, he delivered a discourse on sacred music at a con- 
cert. On Sunday, 16th of August, 1835, preached a ser- 
mon on revivals. On Sunday, 13th of September, attended 
a meeting of Presbyterians at which Rev. Mr. Kollock, 
agent of one of Boards of the Church, was the principal 
speaker. On the 4th of July, 1836, he delivered here an 
address on the subject of National Independence. He 



/ 



20 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

remained in the valley from December, 1834, till April, 
1837, having his residence in Kingston borough. On 
alternate Sabbaths he preached in Kingston in the morn- 
ing in the old Academy, and in the evening at the church 
in New Troy, now Wyoming, in a house the Presbyterians 
had just built there. The other Sabbath he spent in Han- 
over, and in Old Providence township, preaching some- 
times in the school house near Elisha Atherton's, some- 
times in Hyde Park and sometimes in Razorville or 
Providence village, and on several occasions at Nanticoke. 
At this time there were but three Presbyterian houses of 
worship in all Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, viz. : 
Wilkes-Barre, Hanover and New Troy, and but three 
Presbyterian churches organized, Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, 
New Troy and Kingston. From April, 1837-, to the F a ^ 
of 1887, a period of 50 years, he has preached regularly 
in Bradford county, where he now resides, at East Smith- 
field, a hale man of 85 years, 

REV. E. HAZARD SNOWDEN. 

Rev. E. Hazard Snowden is a grandson of Isaac 
Snowden, once Treasurer of the City of Philadelphia, and 
son of Rev. Samuel Findlay Snowden, first pastor of the 
Presbyterian church of Princeton, N. J., and his wife, Susan 
Bayard Snowden, a descendant of Rev. James Anderson, 
first pastor of the Wall Street Presbyterian church, New 
York. He was born at Princeton, N. J., 27th of June, 
1798, and while a child removed to New Hartford, Oneida 
county, N. Y. In 1814 he entered Hamilton College 
where he graduated in 1818 ; studied law and was admitted 
to the bar at Utica, N. Y., went to Nashville, Tenn., to 
practice, but had united with the Presbyterian church and 
soon decided to enter the ministry of that denomination ; 
studied theology at Princeton, and was installed pastor of 
the Presbyterian church at St. Augustine, Fla. ; made a 
missionary tour to the Gulf of Mexico ; came North and 
became pastor of the Brownville church. At the disrup- 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 21 

tion of the Presbyterian church went to Philadelphia as a 
delegate to the convention of 1837, an d while there 
accepted an invitation to visit the Kingston church, of 
which he became pastor that Fall ; later was pastor of the 
churches at Warren, Bradford county, Pa., and Woods- 
town, N. J. ; returned to Wyoming Valley and preached at 
Plymouth. He now resides at " Snowden Cottage," in 
Forty Fort, at the good old age of 90. He was instru- 
mental in building churches at Kingston, Plymouth and 
Larksville, the edifice at the latter place being known as 
the "Snowden Memorial Church." Mr. Snowden was a 
ripe scholar, and wrote elegant sermons but failed to give 
them full effect by a free and forceful delivery. 

So much of the history of this building, connected 
with the Presbyterian church and its ministers who have 
preached therein, as I have been able to gather from the 
scanty records and memorials of the past, I have now 
given you, and after a brief history of the Old Forty Fort 
burying ground, including a short review of the first set- 
tlements at Wyoming, and the church or religious move- 
ments previous to the building of this edifice, and a short 
sketch in relation to the organization and labors of the 
Forty Fort Cemetery Association, all intimately connected, 
I will make way for another, who will give you the history 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, its ministers and their 
labors within these hallowed precincts. 

The old Forty Fort burying ground, a square acre of 
land lying north and east of this building, is the oldest 
burial place now in use in Wyoming Valley, but not the 
first place where burials were made. The township of 
Kingston, in which it was located, was surveyed and allotted 
in 1770, among the forty who had moved in and settled 
within its bounds on the first day of February of the pre- 
vious year, 1769, and in advance of the settlers of the 
other towns. The first division, called "House Lots," 
was located at Forty Fort, on the west side of River 



22 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

street. They each contained five acres, and lay in a double 
tier from the hill on the south extending north nearly to 
the D., L. & VV. Railroad. This was called the first divi- 
sion, and the intended location of a town. In May, 1770, 
the main road through Kingston was laid out, and the land 
between it and the river, except the house lots, was laid 
out into lots called "Meadow Lots." This was called the 
second division. Soon afterwards the land on the north- 
west side of the "Great Road," from the road to the top 
of the mountain, was laid out into lots and was called the 
"Great Lots," or third division. Out of the land on the 
east side of River street in 1770 was laid out the acre for 
burial purposes, which is now known as the " Old Grave 
Yard." There were most probably burials in it before its 
boundaries were exactly defined by survey. It would 
hence seem to have been the first burial place of white 
people in Wyoming Valley, but our historians inform us 
that a settlement was commenced in the latter part of 
August, 1762, when 1 19 of the proprietors of the Susque- 
hanna Company came on to Wyoming, and took possession 
of the country in behalf of themselves and the Company 
of proprietors. 

They brought horses, cattle, farming utensils, etc., and 
commenced operations in farming, and located at or near 
the mouth of Mill Creek, where they cut hay, plowed and 
sowed grain, built houses or huts for shelter and then re- 
turned home for the winter. Early in May, 1763, they 
returned with others to the number of about 300, retook 
possession of their houses and lands, proceeded in the 
work of farming, and everything was moving on in a pros- 
perous condition when suddenly, and without the least 
warning, on the 15th of October, they were attacked while 
dispersed and engaged at their work, and about twenty of 
them slain. Here was the occasion and the material for 
founding a burying ground if there had been none before, 
and the survivors performed the solemn duty which the 
circumstances required. " Capt. Clayton and his party 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 23 

buried nine men and a woman who had been most cruelly 
butchered. " There is no doubt but that the burial of these 
twenty slain furnished the first burying ground in the Val- 
ley by the whites, but just where they are buried is not 
now known. It would seem to have been on the north 
side of Mill Creek, in the neighborhood of Hollenback 
Cemetery. A monument to their memory, in the north 
part of the cemetery, would be a fitting service on the part 
of the residents of the valley. 

A sketch of the religious situation and doings at Wyo- 
ming previous to the erection of this building would now 
seem proper on this occasion. I will be as brief as I can 
and give the facts : 

Among the settlers slain on the 15th of October, 1763, 
was Rev. William Marsh, who came as their religious 
instructor. On the renewal of the settlement, in 1769, Rev. 
George Beckwith, Jr., came as the preacher for the settlers. 

At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at 
Hartford, Wednesday, November 27th, 1770, voted: 
"That the Rev. George Beckwith, Jr., of Lyme, be entitled 
to one whole share in the Susquehanna purchase, in part 
payment for his services in the ministry at Wyoming for the 
benefit of the settlers there. " 

The third minister who came to preach the gospel to 
the settlers was Rev. Jacob Johnson. He was a native of 
Groton, Conn. He graduated at Yale College in 1740, 
and was ordained in North Groton in 1749. He spent 
many years as a Missionary among the Indians on the 
Mohawk, acquired their language and preached in it 
fluently. He was eminent for his labors and sterling piety. 

On the 2 1st June, 1767, a new meeting-house having 
been erected by the Congregationalists of Groton, " Rev. 
Jacob Johnson preached ye first sermon ever was preached 
in the new meeting-house, in ye first society of Groton. " 
He continued as pastor of this congregation until October, 
1772, when he asked for dismission, as "he was about to 
accept a call to Wyoming. " 



24 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY MEETINGS AT WYOMING. 

"At a meeting held at Wyoming, 2nd October, 1772, 
Capt. O. Gore, Capt. Z. Butler and Maj. Ez. Peirce were 
appointed a committee to provide a habitation for Rev. 
Jacob Johnson this winter. " 

At a meeting, 1 8th November, 1772, voted: "Mr. 
Christopher Avery is appointed to collect in those species 
that the proprietors and settlers have signed to the support 
of the Rev. Mr. Jacob Johnson, the year ensuing." 

"The Rev. Mr. Jacob Johnson is entitled to a settling 
right in some one of the settling towns. " 

"At a meeting, 16th February, 1773, voted to continue 
the Rev. Jacob Johnson in the work of the gospel ministry 
among us. " 

"At a meeting held 23rd August, 1773, resolved to 
invite the Rev. Jacob Johnson, of Groton, Conn., who has 
been some time preaching for us, to become our pastor." 
Joseph Sluman, clerk, Jabez Sill, moderator. The invita- 
tion thus made was accepted, a congregation duly orga- 
nized, and Rev. Jacob Johnson installed as pastor. The 
organization of the Congregational Church in the valley 
may date from this meeting. It subsequently became 
Presbyterian, under Dr. Murray, as I have narrated. 

"At a meeting, 8th December, 1773, Kingston and Ply- 
mouth are willing to dismiss the Rev. Mr. Jacob Johnson 
from his former agreement in dividing his labor in preach- 
ing the gospel among us." 

Mr. Johnson continued in his position as pastor until 
advancing age and increasing infirmities prevented his 
further labors. He died in 1797, aged about 83 years. 

Col. John Franklin in his journal records : 

"Sunday, 28th February, 1789. I attended meeting at 
Yarington's. Mr. Johnson preached." 

"Sunday, 28th March, 1789. Attended meeting at 
Yarington's to hear Rev. Mr. Johnson. " 

As the feebleness of advancing years crept over the 
frame of their beloved pastor, other ministers occasionally 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 25 

came to visit and assist him in his work. Some were Con- 
gregationalists from Connecticut, and some Presbyterians 
from the lower Susquehanna. Rev. Elkanah Holmes, 
Rev. N. VVadhams and Deacon John Hurlbut were among 
those who thus assisted. 

"The most important spiritual assistance, however, was 
by Rev. Elias Von Bunschoten, of the Presbyterian Church 
at Minisink, who came here about 1790, and in July, 179 1, 
organized a church in Hanover. A house of worship had 
been previously erected there, near the site of the present 
church. This house was enclosed but never completed. 
Rev. John Dorrance preached his first sermon after licen- 
sure in it, but it was then a mere wreck." 

The Rev. Mr. Von Bunschoten was followed by Rev 
Mr. Andrew Gray of Ireland, from Poughkeepsie, who 
was settled in 1792, a preacher of uncommon eloquence. 
He married Miss Polly, daughter of Capt. Lazarus Stewart. 

In 1 79 1 the Congregationalists began to act in the 
matter of a meeting-house in Wilkes-Barre. 

In March, 1800, it was voted that the moneys arising 
from the sale of the ferry-house, and the use of the ferry, 
be appropriated toward building the meeting-house. 

In June, 1801, the house was erected and enclosed. 

In 1808 it was resolved to finish the Lord's house 
through the instrumentality of a lottery, which was 
accordingly done. "Finally, in the year 1812, after pro- 
tracted and arduous effort, Mr. Hitchcock, builder of the 
Forty Fort Church, was enabled to finish what was claimed 
as the most elegant church in Northern Pennsylvania. 

From this small beginning, a century or so ago, the 
Presbyterian Church, within about the same territory, in 
1887 counted 76 ministers, 87 churches, 9586 members, 
with 13,009 Sunday School scholars, and an expenditure in 
money for all purposes of $195,000. 

For a long time this honored building and the old 
burying ground adjoining were neglected and uncared for, 
except that William Swetland, a man that never saw a 



26 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

good work necessary to be done but that his feelings 
prompted him to its performance, even at his own expense, 
with his accustomed liberality had put a new roof upon and 
painted the building and repaired the fences. 

Finally, a few persons whose friends and ancestors lay 
buried in the old grounds, desirous of putting the building 
and grounds around it into better shape and condition and 
provide for their future care, conceived the idea of a 
Cemetery Association, whose object should be not only 
their care and preservation but the enlargement of the 
grounds to meet present and future requirements for burial 
purposes, and to this end a charter of incorporation was 
obtained from the Legislature of Pennsylvania, a synopsis 
of which is as follows, to wit : 

An Act of Assembly, approved the sixth day of March, 
i860. 

Section 1st provides "That Steuben Jenkins, William 
Swetland, Thomas P. Hunt, Hiram Denison, Charles D. 
Shoemaker, Charles Dorrance and William G. Case, with 
such other persons as they may associate with them, and 
their successors, be and are created a body politic and 
corporate in law, by the name, style and title of 'The 
Forty Fort Cemetery Association, ' with power to purchase, 
have, hold and enjoy, to them and their successors, any real 
estate for the purpose of establishing said Cemetery, with 
authority to receive gifts or benefits for the purpose of 
ornamenting, improving or enlarging said Cemetery. 

Section 4th provides "That the said Association shall 
have control over the old burying ground at Forty Fort 
as fully as over any lands they may purchase or that may 
be given or devised to them. 

Section 6th authorizes " The Trustees of the proprietors 
of the township of Kingston to convey to said Association 
the public land adjoining the old burying ground, being 
about five acres, " which land the said Trustees conveyed to 
the association by Deed dated 1 4 December, 1 86 1 , recorded 
in Luzerne county, in Deed Book No. 86, p. 331, &c. 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 2J 

In pursuance of this Act of Assembly, the persons 
therein named proceeded to organize and carry out the 
purpose of said Act, and the result is what can be seen 
here to-day, the providing of a Cemetery, which if not the 
most beautiful, is certainly one of the most beautiful in all 
Northeastern Pennsylvania, covering about twelve acres of 
land, and it has become the final resting place of many of 
the wealthiest, most intelligent and honorable of Wyoming 
Valley's dead — soldiers, statesmen, philosophers, physi- 
cians, poets, preachers and laymen. 

The Association has given particular attention to this 
building, to preserve it from the hands of the spoiler, and, 
in their care of it have sought to restore and keep it in its 
original state, have raised it up and repaired its founda- 
tions, cleansed and repaired its interior, and painted its 
exterior to preserve it from our destructive climate. They 
have permitted its use for legitimate purposes, but have 
been constrained to refuse its use for improper purposes, 
or for such purposes as did not comport with its original 
design. 

William Swetland was elected the first president of the 
association, and he continued as such by successive yearly 
elections until his death, on the 27th of September, 1864. 

Payne Pettebone was elected president to succeed Mr. 
Swetland, and he continued as such until his death, 20th 
March, 1888. 

The present Board of Managers consists of L. D. Shoe- 
maker, Frank Helme, Lawrence Myers, S. B. Vaughn, 
Abram Nesbitt, treasurer; Steuben Jenkins, secretary, 
which office the latter has held from the first organization. 

It gives the Directors of this Association great pleasure 
to be able to say that the project so well conceived has 
been a success, and been able to meet the wants of the 
public for sepulture, which there seemed, in fact was, no 
other means of supplying. 

This house for upwards of eighty years has stood here 
in this city of the dead, a monument, at whose base hun- 



28 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

dreds, nay thousands, casting off the toils, the cares and 
the burdens of life, have lain down to an eternal rest, while 
hundreds, and possibly thousands, have entered these por- 
tals to .find the way of eternal life and enter upon those joys 
which are unspeakable, immeasurable, and which shall ever 
increase through the countless and unchangeable cycles of 
eternity. 

When the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll — 
when the stars shall fall like wind-tossed fruit to earth — 
when every mountain and island shall be moved out of 
their place — and when the Angel shall stand with one foot 
upon the sea and another upon the land, and swear by him 
that liveth forever — him who created the heavens, the 
earth and the sea — that there shall be time no longer — 
then shall a numerous host of those who have here been 
redeemed come forth and shout, Hosannah ! Hosannah ! 
to him who cometh, and who hath redeemed us in the 
blood of the Lamb, for he hath made us fit to sit down in 
his kingdom and enjoy the unspeakable riches of his love ! 
to whom be glory, honor and dominion for ever and ever ! 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 29 



ADDRESS 

OF 

REV. JONATHAN K. PECK. 

To-day, in this presence, we occupy sacred and hal- 
lowed ground. This soil is consecrated soil forever. 
This grand old temple whispers to our ears from every 
tile, and pillar, and sleeper, and board, and window pane. 
Thousands of eyes peer down to us from above this pulpit 
loft. From every corner of this gallery, from this humble, 
sacred altar, and from out every nook, and corner, and 
crevice, the listener can catch the loud Amen that trem- 
bled from lips of redeemed sinners and rolled in grand 
chorus up above trees, and clouds, and welkin, to the ear 
of the loving Saviour. 

Up from these sepulchral domes which surround us 
come spirits and messengers that whisper with white lips 
words which remind us that this village of evergreens is 
not a deserted village. I would rather listen than speak. 
With this heaven above me, and these ashes below me, 
and these historic facts around me, I would prefer to sit 
silent, with head uncovered and feet unsandaled, and press 
my finger upon my lip and hear what the reverend chroni- 
cler of the grave utters from immortal voice. The old 
clock has just sounded the curfew of a century and the 
whole world gazes at the bulletin board where the hand of 
a smiling angel records the deeds of men and women 
during one century's swinging circle. Read and feast, and 
read and wonder, and read and weep, and read and rejoice. 

We stand to-day in the very midst of a moral revolu- 
tion that commenced right here one hundred years ago. 
Just before the terrible 3d of July, 1778, the few inhabi- 
tants who were some distance from the fort, which stood a 
few rods from this spot, were warned by signal guns at the 



30 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

fort that there was great danger from the incursions of 
the Indians, and all must come here for safety. So they 
came, mostly women and children. One family living at 
the mill, in the place now called Luzerne Borough, came 
in sad procession to the fort. Some of the family were sick 
and a team was procured and a file of soldier boys went 
from here to the hollow to see that they came in safely. 
One child was carried on a litter, and Deborah, only five 
years old, was put in a wheelbarrow and one of the soldier 
boys volunteered to convey her to Forty Fort in this 
ancient carriage with one wheel. Grand boy and precious 
girl — Asa Gore and Deborah Sutton. The boy fell a few 
days after in the disastrous battle, and his name adorns the 
granite shaft at Wyoming. 

That terrible day is historic, and especially so to us 
who celebrate the religious movement then commenced. 
A Connecticut boy was here and was in the battle and 
fought bravely on the patriot side, and fled with the few 
that escaped and commenced to pray the Lord for pardon 
and mercy while he ran. Before the sun went down he 
was hidden under a grape vine at the mouth of the creek 
just a few steps from this church. There was his altar and 
his place of prayer. This church was not here, but the 
great trees were here. The river was running crimson, and 
the dead bodies of patriots were slowly floating down into 
the eddy from Monockonock. While at his altar seeking 
the Lord he heard music, but it was the wild melody of 
victorious Red Men and Tories and the shrieks of those 
whose hearts were dying over a terrible defeat. There he 
lay and prayed until he found peace with God and came 
out from his hiding place as the gray twilight drew on, to 
feel that his peace was made with heaven, just at the time 
that the patriot fort was surrendered to the bloody foe. 
Then with the sorrowing remnant he joined in the proces- 
sion to the far East for safety. Soon after, he returned, 
built himself a log house just down the street towards 
Kingston, and commenced work as a mechanic and invited 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 3 1 

in his neighbors to pray and converse on the subject of 
their souls' best interests. This was Anning Owen, con- 
verted during the Massacre without church or minister. 
And this conversion of this noble soldier boy amidst 
blood and death is the only relieving feature, coming out 
from that world renowned tragedy. A soul redeemed, to 
lead armies to victory and build churches that shall fill the 
world with song that shall resound along the ages till the 
millenium shall send its mellow light over a redeemed 
universe. 

After the capitulation, Deborah Sutton's father con- 
structed a frail ark in the eddy, just here, and he and Dr. 
Lemuel Gustin with their familes braved the dangers of 
the current and the worse dangers of the savages and 
swept on down the river and landed at Northumberland. 
She had ridden on a wheelbarrow, now on an ark. Remain- 
ing away from the valley for several months they returned 
to mend up their broken spirits, their broken fortune, and 
their broken health. The house and mill were destroyed, 
but the Indians had mostly gone. Work went on, time 
went on. Frances Slocum was stolen and carried away. 
Mr. Sutton built a mill across the river from Forty Fort at 
the mouth of Mill Creek. Deborah grew to womanhood, 
Anning Owen commenced meetings on Ross Hill, just 
west of Wyoming Seminary that now is, and Deborah 
Sutton went from Pittston to Ross Hill to meeting, and 
just one hundred years ago now, a class was organized 
consisting of the following persons : Anning Owen and 
wife, Mr. Gray and wife, Abram Adams, Stephen Baker 
and wife, Mrs. Wooly, and Nancy Wooly and Deborah 
Sutton, who was then sixteen years of age. Stephen 
Baker lived in Forty Fort, fifty rods down from here, and 
Miss Sutton lived with her father, near Pittston, so the 
class represented the whole valley and was all there was at 
that time of any Christian organization that was Methodist 
between Baltimore and Lake Ontario. 

Anning Owen organized them into a class. Will any- 



32 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

one say it was irregular and out of order? It was so 
regular that the class remained and never had to be recon- 
structed. It was not made up of members taken from 
any other denomination. The pastor, the leader and his 
little flock were converted sinners, united in heart and 
hand for the conquest of the world. They were greeted 
with some persecution, but the Lord blessed them and 
added to their number. A missionary from the Church 
of England could not have come into Wyoming Valley 
and lived an hour without adopting the loyal cause, and 
could not possibly have organized a society out of the 
survivors of the massacre, but Anning Owen, who was 
under fire during all that unequal encounter, could get a 
hearing and a respectful hearing by all parties and classes. 
He was on the Patriot side and on the Lord's side too. 
He could do more to restrain the wicked of those turbu- 
lent times than a dozen priests or rectors with surplice 
and prayerbook. 

This organization spread and extended North and 
East and West, and was just as regular as any class that 
has been organized since that time one hundred years ago. 
That class erected a "Meeting House" on Hanover 
Green after five years of prayer, and toil, and worship in 
barns and private houses. That first church of any 
denomination in all this part of the country is gone en- 
tirely and only the outlines of the foundation are pointed 
out to any one who may visit the spot. From South and 
East came the pioneer preachers and they were only too 
glad to find a warm hearted society to welcome them and 
shelter them. 

Three years had passed when James Campbell came 
to Wyoming, and that three years had added to the Ross 
Hill Society so that it numbered a hundred members. 
The work of God had spread through the valley. It had 
run from Ross Hill to the upper part of Kingston Town- 
ship, had gone to Plymouth and had extended across the 
river to Hanover and Newport. 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 33 

Two years more and William Colbert came here fresh 
from the General Conference, which had just been held in 
the city of Baltimore. He came through Northumber- 
land and Berwick and into the Valley at Nanticoke, and 
slept on the floor at Aaron Hunt's then pushed on up 
through the Valley to Tunkhannock, Towanda and Tioga. 
Then returned to the Valley. He spent four months up 
the river preaching and organizing societies, and received 
three dollars and fourteen cents for his one-third of a year 
work. He came down the river with Thomas Ware in a 
boat. On Tuesday, the 16th of April, he landed at 
Wilkes-Barre, dined at Mr. Man's, and then rode to Rich- 
ard Inman's, dined with three sisters in the mill. This 
was his birthday. On the 19th of May, 1793, he preached 
in the Hanover Green meeting house. 

Ruth Pearce, Alice and Hannah Pearce, Samuel Car- 
ver and his father, and Joseph Brown, Captain Ebenezer 
Parrish and wife, and Darius Williams and wife, had already 
joined the Ross Hill Class. Hanover Green meeting 
house was their preaching place. A Hanover Class was 
formed, but the interest seemed to travel up the Valley. 
Philip Jackson lived across the street from where the 
monument now stands and his wife became a Christian and 
there they had preaching and quarterly meetings. One 
quarterly meeting held there in 1795 was in charge of that 
wonderful man, Valentine Cook. The Saturday afternoon 
came and the Presiding Elder and pastor came — he was 
Alward White. The people came and heard the words of 
cheer and warning, and the meeting closed and the 
official brethren went up stairs to hold their quarterly con- 
ference. They were on the very farm where the heroes of 
Wyoming lay in a common grave, fallen only seventeen 
years before. The enemies would be there in force and 
these few men and women were to meet them on the com- 
ing Sabbath day and contend for victory over the powers 
of darkness. Here was a private house and an upper 
chamber, and in that chamber was the quarterly confer- 



34 



UNION SERVICES OF THE 



ence. Prayers were heard, and songs and shouts were 
heard coming from that upper chamber, and as the door 
was pushed ajar the whole conference was seen lying 
prostrate on the floor overcome by the power of God. 
The Presiding Elder, Pastor, Secretary, Stewards, and 
leaders, all were prone and powerless. A few other mem- 
bers ventured to go in and as soon as they entered they 
fell. The powers of heaven were holding that upper 
chamber. The grand men in that chamber were prepar- 
ing to fight the Wyoming battle over and the endowment 
came upon them assuring them of victory on the loyal 
side this time. The Sabbath came, the victory came and 
after a powerful love feast and an overwhelming sermon 
by Valentine Cook, scores of souls were captured from 
the enemy and brought into the fold of Christ. Victory 
had so soon followed defeat on this same ground. Deborah 
Sutton was one of the victors in that glorious day of strife, 
and in her age and feebleness told the story that has now 
gone upon the records of history. 

That quarterly conference had no financial questions 
to settle, for they had no finances, no salaries, nor dona- 
tions to report. Eight years after this great victory they 
began to have finances, and the report was as follows : 

Forty Fort, (Kingston) ... $ 4-371 

Wilkes-Barre, .... 2.93 

Plains, 

Pittston, 

Providence, 

Tunkhannock, 

Exeter, 

Ross Hill, 

Carver's, 

Plymouth, 

Briar Creek, 

Hop Bottom, 

Total, (Two preachers' salary) 

In a few years more this Forty 
to stand mid-way between Ross Hi 



1.70 

.50 

.40 

.00 

1. n 

2.02 

1-374 

2.50 
.50 
.00 



$17.41 

Fort church was built 
11 and the battle field. 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 35 

Bishop Asbury came and preached on the spot in the 
woods before this edifice was completed. This was Sun- 
day the 19th day of July 1807. Anning Owen was now 
Presiding Elder and Benjamin Bidlack, who was in his 
prime, who had been with Washington through his battles 
of the Revolution and was present at the surrender of the 
sword of Cornwallis, had surrendered to the Man of 
Galilee, at a campmeeting held in the Township of 
Kingston, not far from the spot where the quar- 
terly conference had been prostrated, and he now had be- 
come a preacher of the gospel and stood beside Anning 
Owen in the struggles between virtue and vice. A great 
revival swept over the valley and many were subjects of 
the revolution, in Wilkes-Barre and on the Plains above. 
Anning Owen baptized and received into the church Roger 
Searle. This Roger Searle was with Owen in the Wyoming 
battle, fled with him to the river, just here, and was with 
him under the grape vine. Scores of young people came 
into the fold. Hannah Courtright was among the con- 
verts. She is now living, ninety years of age, on North 
Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, the widow of the late John 
Abbott. Colonel Denison who led the left wing on the 
fatal third of July, became a member of the church and 
an active supporter of the itinerant ministers. Denison, 
Owen and Bidlack were a grand trio to carry the banner for 
Christ and his church. 

Five years before the battle the first marriage was con- 
summated here in the Bennet cabin, thirty-four years be- 
fore this church was built. The bridegroom was Col. 
Nathan Denison, and the bride Betsey Sills. Elizabeth 
Denison, the wife of their son Lazarus, was a member of 
the first class formed here and her name is on the record 
I have, but connected with the New Troy Class. Her 
membership was changed to that class, though she con- 
tinued to live in the same place, about midway between 
here and Wyoming. 

Ziba Bennett, Sharp D. Lewis, Lord Butler and 



36 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

Aiming Owen Chahoon joined while Elisha Bibbins 
had charge in 1820. The circuit reached from Northum- 
berland on both sides of the river away on up to Meshop- 
pen Creek and Montrose. This old church was the centre 
and rallying point. Here stood the poorly clad and half 
shod raftman, and exhorted to a crowd that filled these 
seats and galleries, and made such an impression that he 
was persuaded to leave his rafting and take a circuit. 
This exhortation was in 18 19 and may be remembered by 
some now here. 

About the year 1824, when Benjamin Bidlack was a 
superannuated preacher and lived in Kingston, he formed 
a class here separate from Kingston, and he preached for 
them and led their class. One is now living who 
was a member of that class. Then she was twelve 
years of age. She was Elizabeth Bennet, the 
daughter of Andrew Bennet, who with his father and one 
other man disarmed and defeated seven Indians at 
Meshoppen, killing five and letting two escape, one of 
them mortally wounded. Elizabeth Bennet, now the 
widow of Henry Polen, has a clear recollection of the 
members of that early class. Her father joined while on 
his bed of lingering consumption, and her mother, Abigail 
Bennet. There are other names of persons who in those 
days sang and prayed within these walls — Elizabeth Deni- 
son, Mrs. Elizabeth Denison Shoemaker, Betsey Van Bus- 
kirk, Col. Nathan Denison, Sallie Jenkins, Betsey Myers, 
afterwards Locke, Mary Bennet, Asa Gore, John Gore, 
Polly Gore, Sally Gore, Joshua Pettebone and wife, Aman- 
da Gates, William Church, Mrs. Church, Sarah Ann 
Underwood, Abbie Church, Mrs. Goodwin, Mr. Duffy (he 
was a great shouter,) Chris Van Buskirk, Patty Tripp, 
Betsey Tuttle, Polly Tuttle, Phebe Tuttle, Harriet Myers, 
Thomas Bennet, Andrew Bennet, Jr., Harriet Chapman 
and others that joined later. Samuel Pugh came and 
joined the company and reared a large family, all of whom 
stood firmly by the cause, and those that now live are the 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 37 

warm friends of the cause through struggles, disasters and 
victory. 

Just seventy years ago George Peck preached his first 
sermon in Wyoming Valley, and it was in this ancient 
edifice. Lorenzo Dow stood on this altar railing and 
preached to a vast throng of people, in 1833, December 
8th, at 12 o'clock noon. For one hundred years there has 
been a regular line of pastors here, from Anning Owen to 
Francis Asbury Chapman — Valentine Cook, George Har- 
mon, Marmaduke Pearce, George Lane, Silas Comfort, 
Horace Agard, Gideon Draper, John M. Snyder, David 
Holmes, Henry F. Raw, the two Paddocks and a host of 
others that I have not time to name. 

There have been times in the history when the regular 
circuit preachers could not have regular appointments 
here. Yet the class meetings and prayer meetings were 
kept up. The voices of Jacob Rice, Roger Moister, 
Samuel Pugh, brother Jackson, brother Chandler, 
Piatt Hitchcock, Reuben Holgate, and Oliver Lewis have 
resounded here. I have a love feast ticket of other days 
which speaks for itself. It has the name of Andrew Ben- 
net upon it, and was loaned me by his sister who now en- 
joys a sweet old age. 

This reminds me of the well authenticated story told 
in the book entitled " Early Methodism. " The Presiding 
Elder, James Smith, on his way to a quarterly meeting in 
Plymouth, in 1803, in a barn, had a long way to travel and 
was a little belated. He enquired of a little girl at Cole- 
man's, who stood at the front of the house, as to her folks. 
She told him they had all gone to love feast. He said, 
" I will hasten on and join them." She said, " It won't do 
any good — they don't let sinners in there. " That was the 
style of old fashioned love feasts. 

T. C. Cuyler has preached in this pulpit. He has a 
world wide reputation. Thomas P. Hunt has spoken here, 
lecturing on temperance and defending the gospel of 
Christ. James Underwood was buried from this church ; 



38 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

he was my class-mate in the old Seminary at the time of 
his death, and Reuben Nelson preached the sermon. And 
how the thoughts come to my mind ! The little society 
that a hundred years ago could have been drawn to a 
quarterly meeting by one yoke of oxen has grown to five 
Conferences numbering a hundred thousand members, 
covering a large portion of two States and most of Canada. 
Seminaries and Universities have been built, and the 
higher education of the people has been promoted, and 
these pioneer preachers have marched in the front ranks 
and have led their people in all the great reformations of 
the country. The old Hanover church, the mother of all, 
lived to see a large family grow up around her, and this 
Forty Fort church, the next eldest daughter has lived to 
see her sisters rise up and cover the whole land, and the 
new century that commences to-day opens with an up- 
ward swing that inspires the marching hosts the world 
over. 

Forty years ago, while living in this place and the 
religious interest had seemed to grow away from the 
neighborhood and centre in Kingston and Wilkes-Barre, 
I went to New Troy to an afternoon meeting. Only a few 
were there. The meeting was short and we went home. 
There was one praying mother in Israel who held on to 
the arm of Omnipotence. There was the Wyoming battle 
field. A minister a few months later came upon the field 
from the State of New York, from the very region to 
which Anning Owen and Benjamin Bidlack had extended 
the pioneer work. He commenced with prayer and that 
one mother of Israel prayed for him. Several were conver- 
ted here in Forty Fort, and the work commenced in Troy. 
I saw William Swetland rise up in love feast and ask 
the people to pray for him. The evening came and the 
meeting went on. Payne Pettebone, Daniel Van Scoy, 
Daniel Jones, Peter Polen, Isaac Shoemaker and York 
Smith were among the new recruits. A moral earthquake 
seemed to shake the whole country. My own brother was 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 39 

converted, and is now a member of Wyoming Confer- 
ence. That night the minister wept and prayed, and one 
passage in his prayer was like this, as his voice arose 
louder and louder above the sobs of the penitent: "O 
Lord, let this work go on. Let this work go until all 
business shall be stopped, and men shall collect in 
groups in the streets and ask each other with bated breath 
and blanched faces, ' What will all this amount to ? ' " And 
thus on the old battle field, in hearing of Bloody Rock, the 
Lord's arm was made bare in giving victory to the side of 
righteousness. 

In one exhortation the minister said, "We are engaged 
in a campaign to take New Troy and we will take it, not as 
old Troy was taken, with a wooden horse, but with the 
chariot of the Lord Almighty. " And now the warriors are 
falling, but with victory on their banners. 

Not far from the Monument stands a tower surmount- 
ing a church, and a parsonage is there, and the ground is 
fresh on the grave of Payne Pettebone. And William 
Swetland has long since gone, but being dead he yet 
speaks and this old edifice is cared for because he willed 
it so to be, and a new church and parsonage stand close by 
here. And Thomas H. Pearne lives yet to see the answer 
of his prayers and the prayers of the good sister who gave 
him courage when he came on the ground. 

Anning Owen was an honored preacher all through his 
life. In 181 1 he was elected a delegate to the General 
Conference. He died peacefully at his home in Ulysses, 
Cayuga County, New York, in the month of April, 18 14, 
in the sixty-third year of his age, thirty-six years after his 
conversion here under the grape vine, and twenty-six years 
after he organized the society at Ross Hill, just a hundred 
years ago. Twelve hours after his decease his faithful wife 
breathed her last. They had joined the class together at 
Ross Hill, and now they were transferred together to the 
church above. The wife in those early days would walk 
to Forty Fort church to prayer meeting and other services 



40 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

in a plain clean dress and a checked apron. The last 
record we find of Deborah Sutton Bedford before her 
death, is as follows, in the minutes of Wyoming Confer- 
ence for 1869: "Deborah Bedford, aged 96 years, 
$1.00." This was her Missionary contribution just a few 
weeks before her death. The memorial services were held 
in her honor at the conference session in Honesdale. 

The writer of this sketch remembers Benjamin Bidlack 
sitting in the altar in the old Kingston church, which was 
then new. His head was bowed but his eyes had their old 
fire. He impressed the stranger boy as being a war- 
worn veteran, which he was, and this same youth felt 
honored in assisting to convey the remains to their last 
resting place. 

George Evans, the converted raftsman, labored and 
lived to see the church grow to mighty and vast propor- 
tions. He preached in Pennsylvania and New York 
States. He had a voice like a trumpet. Vast audiences 
thronged to hear him. Members of other churches left 
their own worship to hear his sanctified eloquence. He 
defended the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ against the 
assaults of the Unitarians, and some claimed that the other 
side had the victory. This was of course to be expected 
from those who made the claim. George Evans fell with 
his armor on and his face to the foe, January 25, 1849, 
just thirty years after his great exhortation in this church 
as he stood in his coarse rafting suit, while his raft was tied 
up in the eddy. 

As you leave this sacred place today, and pass down- 
towards Kingston, just before you cross the railroad, you 
can look upon the Owen house where that wonder- 
ful trio, Valentine Cook, William Colbert and Anning 
Owen, met ninety-five years ago to plan the conquest of 
the continent from Maryland to Canada. Colbert had met 
Owen before, but Cook was a stranger to both. Oh if 
some chronicler could give us the words and prayers of 
that first and last meeting of those three mighty men ! It 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 41 

is left for us to guess. Only this : Cook told Colbert that 
he was appointed to Montgomery circuit on the western 
shore of Maryland. Colbert had hoped to spend the 
winter in Wyoming, but a journey of one hundred and 
fifty miles lay before him. Valentine Cook takes the Dis- 
trict as Presiding Elder. Colbert goes to Maryland, and 
Owen leaves his hammer upon the anvil and rakes up his 
fire on the forge, leaves his family in their humble log 
house and goes to Seneca Lake. 

But I must hasten to conclude. I love this old church 
and this part of Wyoming Valley. Here rest relatives and 
friends. Here rest the Bennets of four generations. 
Right here stood the first log cabin built by Thomas Ben- 
net before the stormy days of the Revolution. Here I 
superintended a Sunday School in my young days. Here 
I received my first license to exhort, voted for by the class 
in this church, October 9th, 1848. Here I gave my first 
public exhortation, — not equal to George Evans, the rafts- 
man, but the best I could do, with some lines from Pol- 
lock's Course of Time woven in. The Shoemakers, the 
Myerses, the Pettebones, the Pughs, the Culvers, the Ben- 
nets, Rev. E. H. Snowden and John Stout, were kind 
friends to me in my early struggles. Andrew Lutz was 
a friend later. 

The world moves and I rejoice. I greet some friends 
to-day that then greeted me. And the souls of the dead 
are marching on. The fathers have left wealth to their 
children that they had not dreamed of when they died. 
The poor school boys have lived to be millionaires. The 
snows and rains of nearly a century have fallen upon the 
tiles of this house while the church has grown from one hun- 
dred forty-four thousand to two million and more, including 
the southern memberships. The coming century will 
reveal grander progress still, till we all join in the last 
grand jubilee. 

I have here the names of all who joined this society 
down to 1859, later than those already mentioned, and 



42 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

one at least who joined the first class when Benjamin Bid- 
lack was the leader. She was a member when I belonged 
here, quite old, Elizabeth Tuttle. She was born in the 
Bennet cabin in 1771 on the spot where the Bennet lot 
in the cemetery is located. The daughter of Thomas Ben- 
net was one of the Forty Fort party, and was carried in the 
arms of her sister Martha from the cabin to the spring 
under the bank and back again several times while the 
mother was away in Philadelphia as a witness on the trial 
of the man Speedy for the mnrder of the Pennamite 
officer, Ogden. She was in this cabin with the family 
when the fort was surrendered and was six years old at the 
time, and saw the signing of the articles of capitulation 
by John Butler and Nathan Denison in her father's cabin 
right here. The writing was drawn and signed on the 
famous black walnut table, now owned by Philip H. Myers 
of Wilkes-Barre, a grand nephew of Mrs. Tuttle. I have 
the old church record with her name upon it. 

The names are as follows : 

Elizabeth Tuttle. Pleasant Mascho. 

Phebe Tuttle. Charles Mascho. 
William Church. The father of Lucinda Pugh Space. 

Alman, Anson and Addison. James Space. 

Samuel Pugh. David Stroh. 

Sarah Pugh. Lena Stroh. 

Sarah Underwood. Eliza R. Totten. 

Tryphena Warren. A mother Susan Tyrrill. 

to me while in school. Joseph C. Tyrrill. 

Almeda Warren Williams. Gideon Underwood. 

Ann Abbott. Caroline Underwood. 

Celinda Abbott. Harriet Ann Underwood. 

Levi Barnes. James Van Lone. 

Mary Pugh Barnes. Almira Van Lone. 

Andrew Bennet. Mary Van Buskirk. 

Lydia Pugh Barber. Ezra Warner. 

Augustus L. Barber. Martha A. Woolfinger. 

Rebecca A. Bryant. John T. Bennet. 

Huldah Bryant. Henrietta Bennet. 

Clarrissa A. Baker. Mary Bennet. 



OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH. 43 

Anson Church. Martha Bennet. 

Frances Church. Peter Pugh. 

Eunice A. Church. Geo. W. Peck. 

Almond Church. Abigail Peck. 

Ruth Ann Church. Jonathan K. Peck. 

Huldah Crosby. Luther Peck. 

Mary E. Church. Elizabeth Pugh. 

Esther Pugh Crosby. Oliver G. Pettebone. 

William Crosby. Martha Peck. 

Imla Drake. John Pugh. 

Murilla DeLong. Charles Pugh. 

Jacob Gruver. Elizabeth Pettebone. 

Sarah Gruver. Mary Pettebone. 

Julia Hamlin. John D. Pugh. 

Phebe Ann Heller. Charles Reel. 

Ann Jackson. Ellen Reel. 

Sally Ann Jackson. Elizabeth Reel. 

Marilla Lathrop. Esther A. Reel. 

Sarah J. Myers. Sarah A. Reel. 

My task is done and my heart is full. When I belonged 
to this circuit forty years ago it covered the whole of this 
Wyoming Valley from the river to the west mountain and 
from Nanticoke to the head of the valley. Now there are 
eight stations each of which supports a pastor, all with 
good churches and parsonages, excepting West Nanticoke 
and Larksville. West Pittston, Wyoming, Forty Fort, 
Plymouth, Luzerne and Kingston are all stations, and 
each one of these is as strong to-day as the whole was 
forty years ago. 

My boyish feet pressed the soil of this valley first here, 
as I stepped from a raft and climbed the bank in sight of 
this church. I went to the Hollow and learned a trade. 
Made my first profession of religion in Blind Town, was 
baptized and taken into the church in Kingston, joined the 
class in Forty Fort, walked to Kingston to school, taught 
school in all four places, attended church in Troy frequent- 
ly, and in Plymouth, wore a soldier's coat and carried a 
musket at the dedication of the Monument, was recom- 
mended to the Conference by the Quarterly Conference of 
Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, and my first charge was 



44 UNION SERVICES OF THE 

Ashley, Nanticoke, Hanover, Wanamie and Mountain 
Top. After this the Plains was a home for me, and in the 
Hollenback Cemetery sleeps a brother-in-law, John R. 
Searle, whose dead body was brought home from the army, 
a grand boy who wore the blue, and near him sleeps a 
dear child, where perchance I shall rest before many 
revolving years. 

We shall know each other better 
When the mists have cleared away. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 311 940 3 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 311 940 3 



